Turkey Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Turkey cities.

Istanbul is thought to be named from the personal name Byzas, the legendary founder of the city. Previously known known as Constaninople 'the city of Constantine'.

Ankara was known as Ankyra or 'anchor' to the Greeks.

Izmir is the Turkish rendering of the original Greek Smyrna, known to be a personal name but no knowlegde of who the person may have been.

Bursa was known as Prusa to the Greeks, this named after the King of Bithynia Prusias I, who was given the kingdom by Philip V of Macedon. The city was once known as Hudavendigar, the Persian for 'God's gift'.

Gaziantep has several suggested origins: from the Hittite khantap or 'king's land'; from Arabic ain and Aramaic tan giving 'praise the spring'; from Arabic ain tayyib 'good spring'; or Aramiac ayin debo 'spring of the wolf'.

Konya is recorded in history as Ikonion, which has been said to come from the Greek eikon or 'image'. In turn this has been said to refer to the gorgon Medusa, Perseus using her head to defeat the population before founding a new city.

Antalya was founded as Attaleia from its founder Attalos II, King of Pergamon and who died in 138BC at the reported age of 82.

Kayseri was originally known as Mazaka, named after its founder Mishak. The modern name comes from Caesar Augustus, it named at his death in AD14.

Eskisehir comes from the Turkish eski sehit or 'old city'. Not a bad name for a city which has evidence of being occupied by the Phrygians some three thousand years ago and may well be a thousand or more years older.

Diyarbakir is Arabic for 'the land of Bakir', the name of the tribe who settled here in the 7th century. The Romans and Byzantines called it Amida.

Denizli is thought to refer to this 'having an abundance of water sources'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Tunisia Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Tunisian cities.

Tunis has a number of explanations: the Phoenician goddess Tanith; from the Berber root ens which could mean 'to lie down' or 'to pass right or 'camp at night' or 'stop'.

Sousse is a French version of the Arabic name, itself probably from the Berber Sous River.

Kairouan is an Arabic version of the Persian karvan meaning 'military camp'.

Bizerte is from the Punic and related to ubon meaning 'harbour'.

Aryanah is a name which dates from which this was a Vandal Kingdom and either refers to the Arian faith or to the Persians referring to themselves as Aryan.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Tajikstan Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Tajikstan cities.

Dushanbe means 'Monday' in the Persian language - correctly 'second day' - as this was when a large bazaar was held here.

Tursunzoda was originally known as Regar or 'a town on sand' but renamed in 1978 to honour the national poet Mirzo Tursunzoda.

Somoniyon was renamed in 1998 to mark the 1100th anniversary of the Samanid Empire, earlier known as Sardorova after Karakhon Sardorov.

Balkh is related to the Sanskrit for 'Bactrian'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Azerbaijan Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. This time a look at Azerbaijan and some of this former Soviet nation's largest cities.

Baku is the capital city and by far the largest. In 2012 the population was given as 2,122,300, more than six times that of the next largest. The city is renowned for being very windy, resulting in it being nicknamed "The City of Winds", while its official name is thought to come from Old Persian Bad-kube which also means 'the wind-pounded city'.

Ganja is traditionally held to have been founded by a Muslim Arab leader, yet historians have shown this to be much earlier and comes from New Persian ganj meaning 'treasury'. This is supported by evidence of the name being recorded as Janza in the 5th century and the population spoke mainly in the Persian language.

Sumqayit has somewhat uncertain origins but that will never prevent folklore offering up a possible origin. It is said the city took its name from the Sumqayit River, itself held to have been named when a hero known as Sum was chosen to fight the monster blocking the path of the river. Sum succeeds in destroying the monster but, in doing so, allowed the waters to crash through and swept the victor away. Apparently he was never seen again but the love of his life, overcome by grief, would often go to the river and cry out in Azerbaijani the words Sum qayit or 'Sum, come back!"

Sheki goes back to the 7th century BC when it was founded by the Sakas, an Iranian people who had come here from the northern Black Sea, to the South Caucasus and to Asia Minor. Saka comes from the Persian and/or Sanskrit term for the Scythians which can be traced to an ancient Indo-European root skeud meaning 'propel, shoot'. This will have referred to them being renowned as the first culture known to mastered the art of mounted warfare, put simply the first cavalrymen.

Yevlakh comes from an Old Turkic word meaning 'a swampy place'.

Lankaran is a modern version of the Persian name of Langarkanan and meant 'the place of pulling up the anchors' and with obvious meaning. There is another explanation, where Median Lan, the name of a tribe in the region of the Caspian Sea, and karan 'border, land' combine to speak of the adjoining region but, at least from an etymological perspective, this seems most unlikely.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.